The University of Kansas and Profssor Jonathan Mayhew have agreed to a contract designed to keep Mayhew at KU through the 2021-22 academic year.
"We believe Jonathan Mayhew is among a very small number of elite Spanish Professors," KU Provost David Vitter said, "and this ensures that we compensate him accordingly. We are proud of the way he represents the University of Kansas and the entire State of Kansas, and we are thrilled that he will remain a Spanish Professor for at least another decade."
In order for Mayhew to earn the maximum amount of the contract, including retention bonuses, he must remain at KU through the 2021-22 Academic Year.
Mayhew's current contract, which runs through June 2018, pays him $3.376 million, including base salary and annual service payments, as well as retention payments that are payable in 2013 and 2018.
The new contract pays Mayhew $3.856 million annually, an increase of some $480,000 per year. In addition, Msyhew will earn a second retention bonus of $876,000 per year, payable in 2015 and 2018. That second retention bonus is replaced in 2019 by an agreement to pay Mayhew a one-time sum of $6 million if he remains a KU Spanish Professor through March 2022.
"I am thrilled that we will live in Lawrence for years to come," Mayhew said. "We love Lawrence and the University of Kansas. We are very appreciative of Chancellor Gray-Little and Sheahon Zenger for the faith and trust they have shown in us, and we look forward to our association with KU in the years to come."
Friday, September 28, 2012
Top Sabbatical Tips
How do you waste a sabbatical? What are the top 5 ways of not getting anything done during extended time off?
1. Don't start working right away. The sabbatical lasts a long time, so you don't want to start right away. Maybe the first of October is a good start date, or the first of March for the spring semester.
2. Travel a lot. Since you have so much time, schedule as many trips as possible. That will break up your rhythm of work and prevent you from ever getting into a groove.
3. Don't set up any specific goals for what you want to get accomplished every week, every month, or during the entire sabbatical. For God's sake never create a daily schedule of work! After all, you have six months with no other responsibilities to worry about. You don't want to constrain your time with a petty schedule.
4.Make sure you say yes to all other opportunities. Review a book? Sure. A tenure case? Why not? Remember, your time is infinite. You can fill the days with other projects and your writing will still get done, because you have all the time in the world.
5. Once December, or July, comes, it is time to stop working on research and begin to think about teaching again. Sure, you didn't get as much done as you could have during those infinite 6 months, but academia is hard! Without having a leave, it is impossible to get anything done, since who can write during the school year when time is not infinite?
1. Don't start working right away. The sabbatical lasts a long time, so you don't want to start right away. Maybe the first of October is a good start date, or the first of March for the spring semester.
2. Travel a lot. Since you have so much time, schedule as many trips as possible. That will break up your rhythm of work and prevent you from ever getting into a groove.
3. Don't set up any specific goals for what you want to get accomplished every week, every month, or during the entire sabbatical. For God's sake never create a daily schedule of work! After all, you have six months with no other responsibilities to worry about. You don't want to constrain your time with a petty schedule.
4.Make sure you say yes to all other opportunities. Review a book? Sure. A tenure case? Why not? Remember, your time is infinite. You can fill the days with other projects and your writing will still get done, because you have all the time in the world.
5. Once December, or July, comes, it is time to stop working on research and begin to think about teaching again. Sure, you didn't get as much done as you could have during those infinite 6 months, but academia is hard! Without having a leave, it is impossible to get anything done, since who can write during the school year when time is not infinite?
My Field is Crap
My experience with tenure evaluations, peer reviews of articles, panels to evaluate grant proposals, and book reviews suggests to me that my own field is crap. This might be merely a manifestation of Sturgeon's Law and hence not worthy of note, but it contains a whiff of hope for aspiring scholars: if your work is not crap, you will be able to publish it. An article that is good, not crappy, even if it is not great, can be published with relative ease. Mere competence puts you ahead of the game.
Some flaws that I habitually see include poor writing, a plodding, dissertation-like recitation of anecdotes, lack of concern for the reader, the failure to present significant conclusions... Most scholarship is dull and any peer evaluator is going to be elated if you can be interesting, compelling, and just not suck.
Some flaws that I habitually see include poor writing, a plodding, dissertation-like recitation of anecdotes, lack of concern for the reader, the failure to present significant conclusions... Most scholarship is dull and any peer evaluator is going to be elated if you can be interesting, compelling, and just not suck.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Stale
The discussion of stale PhDsis interesting. I disagree with commenters who see this as (primarily) an issue of age discrimination. Rather, it is a kind of social-Darwinian thinking that leads to the idea that anyone who didn't get a job after a certain number of years is not as as good as someone who landed a t-t job quickly. This is unfair, given the dip in the job market that severely damaged an entire cohort of academics, but it has almost nothing to do with age discrimination, in my opinion. Needless to say, I am against writing in a job description, "PhD between 2010 and now." That being said, I would tend to look more favorably on a PhD from 2010 than one from 2003, if hiring an Assistant Professor. If you haven't had a highly successful career between 2003 and now, then why should I assume that you will turn it around now?
The freshly minted PhD (I hate that phrase, but that's what they are called) has the advantage of not having had time to screw up yet. He or she is pure promise, pure futurity.
The freshly minted PhD (I hate that phrase, but that's what they are called) has the advantage of not having had time to screw up yet. He or she is pure promise, pure futurity.
Will Work For Food
It occurred to me that I could give the same presentation ("Open Secrets of Scholarly Productivity") at other universities. I am not looking at this as a source of income right now. As long as you feed me (and pay transportation and hotel, if I have to travel more than a hundred miles round trip), I will be happy. Once I perfect my presentation, my price will go up, so now's the time to invite me.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
First Seminar
In October I am giving my first, ever talk on scholarly productivity outside of my own university. I've given workshops for grad students, but never taken this show on the road. I will be talking at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville on "The Open Secrets of Scholarly Productivity." In other words, what everyone who productive already knows (pretty much) and what the conventional wisdom has wrong.
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